Hackers and the importance of Viagra

Not so impressed with Gmail anymore as it turns out emails they told me were intercepted and "Delivery failed" have been sent anyway.

To quote one recipient: "I got your email about viagra and how important it is".
(It seems not everyone is familiar with the concept of spam...)

Since I know a few of you were seemingly sent that email, could someone let me know whether you got it or not?

I have a feeling I shouldn't be sending out a new mass email asking "Got spam?", but I'm curious to know how many received it... and why Gmail told me no one did.

Grrr...

Who the fuck gave my hotmail address out to a million spam-filter-proof spammers???

Hotmail used to catch everything, now I seem to be getting a month's worth of junk every day.



In other news, I'm in Trondheim - it's gorgeous in summer!

Rant of the week

Sorry bout the lack of posts recently. The net here is getting so slow after the antennae-vs.-new-system fiasco, Blogger hasn't been able to open this thing up for a week. I'm also in the middle of my exams - one down, two to go. Only one month till Christmas and today is the Buy Nothing Day. Guess I'll have to get the Christmas calendar some other time...


To get to the subject...

Since I put my email address up on my profile I've been gettting lots of spam. Fortunately, Gmail puts it all in the junk folder so I've never really minded. The spam used to be exclusivly ads for Microsoft or Windows and I've been getting it for months. Common examples might be..


OEM SoftwareTop of the Line XP Software at Guaranteed L0W PRICES
Windows XP Pro $49.95, Office 2003 at 69.95 Adobe
Win XP Special Deals today 0nly
Windows software for 80% 0ff
Windows XP
Photoshop, Windows, Office


So imagine my surprise when I opened the junk box a few days ago. It had been filling up quicker than usual and curious to see what was going on, I looked and I found:


Other guys are improving themselves..are you?
Limited time special for leading enlargement product!
Hey bro, found this site
Don't be left behing- the enlargement revolution!
Don't be the "little guy" in the club
Don't be inadequate anymore!
Take advantage of special discounts now guys!


These started arriving on November 18th. Apparently I've become male again but what do you expect... Then a few days later I got some explaining the 'enlargement process' a little more carefully.


Wow check out this huge enlargement patch sale!
Massive PE patch sale
Last offer- Discount special for PE patch almost over!


-- PE? Patches? Apparently now you can buy patches, put them on your skin, and your penis will grow. How great is that?!? Just listen to this...

A top team of British scientists and medical doctors have worked to develop the state-of-the-art Pen1s Enlargment Patch delivery system which automatically increases pen1s size up to 3-4 full inches. The patches are the easiest and most effective way to increase your size. You won't have to take pills, get under the knife to perform expensive and very painful surgery, use any pumps or other devices. No one will ever find out that you are using our product. Just apply one patch on your body and wear it for 3 days and you will start noticing dramatic results.

-- This must really work because...

Millions of men are taking advantage of this revolutionary new product - Don't be left behind!

I checked out the other emails and found that, no matter the title in the subject field, it was patches they were trying to sell.

I'm also wondering if there's a new virus coming this way - 109 junk emails with a 75kb attachment have landed in my hotmail inbox the past 5 days. I usually get one or two a day so this seems a bit extreme... Of course it could just be that someone got pissed at me and gave my address out to anyone and everyone. It's happened before.

But what I find strange about these emails is the 'From' field. Usually there's some name or numbers, something that doesn't make sense, as in the patches emails. But these are different.

yahoo.com
yahoo.se
gmail.com
hotmail.com
hotmil.com
msn.com
netscape.net
t-online.no

e-trust.be
nero.com
volvo.com
fbi.gov
cia.gov

And many, many others. Subjects are usually something to do with 'password', 'registration', 'hi, I've a new email address' or 'Paris Hilton & Nicole Richie'.

There's nothing strange with this. We all get this stuff. But such an incredible amount, all starting last Monday. Then I got one from both the FBI and the CIA telling me I visit illegal websites. Needless to say, both emails remain unopened. I don't even remember signing up for anything or giving my address to anyone for a while.

Anybody else getting this?

An inbox full of apples

I've been getting so much spam lately, I've taken my email addy off here and anywhere else it's just sitting still for people to look at.

I did, however, put up a new one so if I get any spam there, I know you're to blame. And then I'll smack you in the head with a shovel. (yes I'm serious)

The addy is applestories@gmail.com and I even put it in MSN on Trillian so if you suddenly feel a burning desire to tell me off for something or other, you're very welcome to do so.


Oh, and if anybody wants a gmail account please give me a shout. I just can't get rid of them.

Free Pizza!

I got two of these emails today, offering me $100 Pizza Hut gift cards. At the end of the email there was a link to 'Unsubscribe'. I click this link. Now what?


"We're sorry! This offer is not available in your area. You will be redirected shortly."


I'm too far away to unsubscribe!

What are you gonna do?

73kB

Does anybody know what virus or worm is included in the 73kB emails? They used to be everywhere a few months ago, then they seem to have been lying low for a while and now they're back. I got 10 73kB emails today, what's in them?

All-time largest junk email

From: Pat Gagne
Subject: RXXXXXXX
Size: 344kb



Earlier today I got four identical emails, each weighing 288kb. I have to delete the junk three times a day for Hotmail not to close me down. I know, I know, Hotmail sucks. But it's right there on my MSN so it's easy. And I know, I know, don't give your address out and don't sign up for things. And I don't, it just comes in waves and we seem to be in the middle of one now.

I just hope it stops.

Viagra in the junk

They're doubling the size of their junk mail!

The past months my hotmail (yes, I still use hotmail) has been filled up with 131kb-sized junk in my junk mail. It only takes a few of them to fill up the vacant 50% in there.

Now, however, they've doubled the sizes. Today I've got two of 270kb and one of 286kb. The last one is, quite fittingly, from something called 'MonsterSized - Herbal Formula For Men'. I'm afraid they want to 'monstersize' other things than my junk mail box...

The other two are viagra ads.
I don't want viagra.
I don't need viagra.
I'm a girl!

And even if it was viagra for women...
- how many 20 year olds do you think need viagra?

Hot Cellular Christians

These two landed in my inbox a few days ago:








Now, my first reaction was; "you have got to be kidding me!". But now that I've thought about it, it actually makes sense. Religion is everywhere and we're all arguing about it. It would make sense to know right away just how religious your date is so that you won't end up in a terrible fight when you tell your girl she can't talk to men she's not related to, or you tell your man he has to wear a Kippah to the synagogue.

We should have dating services for Jews and Mulims aswell, not to mention Hindus and Buddhists. This one is for Christians, I'm not Christian so I won't have any use for it, but there might be others out there who will. I wonder if you have to tell them if you are a Catholic or Lutheran or if you belong to the Angelican church (forgive me for errors, as I said, it's not my religion).

The second ad also makes sense. You wouldn't want your Christian money to end up in the hands of a Jew or a Muslim would you? Who knows what they would do with it. Muslims aren't supposed to pay interest, their religion forbids it, could that be your concern? It does not, however, say that only Christians can apply, it only says 'Money Lending Based on Christian Prinsiples'. What are Christian principles within the money lending business? We'll give you money now then we'll take yours later? Do to others what you want others to do to you?

A good idea for those who are Christian. Maybe we'll all just convert to Christianity so that we can date all those wonderful people in the first ad and get all the money from the second ad. We sure don't want to be left out and Christians do seem to get around. With fancy ads from Hot Cellular Deals and everything.